New Delhi: The Bangladesh Supreme Court Sunday reduced the controversial quota in public sector jobs for families of veterans who fought the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, lowering it from 30 percent to 5 percent. This decision comes after a week of violent protests roiled the South Asian country.
At least 778 Indian students have returned through various land ports and around 200 more have come back via flights following violent clashes between protesters — mainly students — and police since Monday.
According to the ministry of external affairs, students from Nepal and Bhutan have also been permitted to exit the country to India.
The Supreme Court has ordered that 93 percent of public sector jobs be filled based on merit, 5 percent be reserved for the families of veterans and 2 percent for ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities.
Around 100 protesters have been killed since Tuesday, according to local media reports. The government of Bangladesh had Wednesday ordered the closure of schools and universities across the country, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed the nation.
The Prime Minister’s address did little to calm tempers, as violence increased in the following days. According to reports, Bangladesh Police have been given shoot-on-sight orders, and national curfew was extended till 3pm Sunday.
The current situation is the biggest challenge facing Sheikh Hasina, who embarked on a historic fifth term as Prime Minister in January 2024.
ThePrint explains Bangladesh’s quota system and the factors that have led to the protests, which resulted in the Army being called in to restore order and Sunday and Monday being declared public holidays.
Also read: Bangladesh anti-quota protests now out of control—‘Razakar’ vs dictator debate has split nation
Quota system in Bangladesh
The original quota system in the country was first set up by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first leader of independent Bangladesh and Sheikh Hasina’s father. The system reserved a percentage of highly sought-after public sector jobs for civilians.
According to Al Jazeera, about 56 percent of jobs were reserved for specific groups, while 44 percent were merit based.
The jobs reserved were as following: 30 percent for families who fought in the Liberation War, 10 percent for people from backward districts, 10 percent for women, 5 percent for minorities, and 1 percent for persons with disabilities.
However, in 2018, the 30 percent reservation for veterans’ families was removed by the government.
The Bangladesh High Court had restored the quota in June 2024.
The 30% quota for veterans’ families
All schools and universities have been closed since Wednesday, while Sunday and Monday have been declared as public holidays, allowing for only emergency services to operate. The Bangladesh Army’s patrolling the streets, while police have been given shoot-on-sight orders.
The violence comes after over a month of demonstrations since at least June, when the Bangladesh HC restored the previously scrapped 30 percent quota for families of veterans.
The quota was scrapped by the Hasina-led government in 2018 following large student demonstrations against it. According to protesters, the quota unfairly benefitted families and supporters of the Awami League — the party in power in the country — who were integral in the liberation struggle.
The High Court ruled against the government order, thereby restoring the quota. The government had appealed against the High Court ruling and the Supreme Court had set 7 August as the date to hear the case.
‘Razakars’ and the ensuing bedlam
According to reports, Sheikh Hasina had referred to the protesters as “Razakars”, a comment that inflamed tensions, leading to the outbreak of violence amongst the protesters.
The term Razakar comes from the Razakar Bahini, a paramilitary force of volunteers set up by the government of Pakistan, in the then area of East Pakistan in 1971. This organisation is alleged to have carried out war crimes, especially against Bangladeshi Hindus in the lead-up to the Liberation War of 1971.
“If the grandchildren of freedom fighters do not receive benefits, who would get it? The grandchildren of Razakars?” the Bangladesh Prime Minister is reported to have said at a press conference on 14 July.
This led to the protesters derisively referring to themselves as ‘Razakars’ in chants across the country. Such chants found pushback from the Prime Minister, labelling those using the term as “regrettable.”
The Prime Minister had promised a judicial inquiry into the killings and labelled the violence as terrorist attacks in her address.
Outbreak of violence
The government’s appeal to the Supreme Court was not enough for the protesters.
On Tuesday, clashes between various student groups broke out across the country, especially between those against the quota and the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) — Awami League’s student wing.
By Thursday, six protesters had been killed, including three in Chittagong, two in Dhaka, and one in the Northern city of Rangpur. The Indian government had published an advisory for Indian citizens to minimise their movements the same day.
However, since Thursday — when the protesters called for a complete shutdown of the country — violence and clashes have increased across the country. According to reports, at least 114 have been killed, but the number may be higher given the shutdown of the internet across the country.
News websites and social media accounts have been inactive since at least Thursday, after the government instituted the internet shutdown.
The protests, according to media reports, are also due to the high unemployment rates faced by the youth of the country, even as Bangladesh’s economy witnessed robust growth over the past decade.
Forces behind the protests
According to Hasina, the protests have been hijacked by her political opponents, who engaged in the violence seen over the last week. The PM, in her address Wednesday night, said that “some vested quarters” had started making “different kinds of statements and engaging in terrorist activities” centred around the movement, as reported by the Dhaka Tribune.
While largely leaderless and filled with diverse crowds, the ruling government believes that there is a hand of outside forces in the outbreak of violence. The opposition Bangladesh National Party has supported the protesters and announced their own separate protests against the government. Earlier in the week, authorities raided the party’s headquarters and sealed them, according to local media reports.
Similarly, the Jamaat-e-Islami has been blamed by the government for being behind the violent protests. The Jamaat, supported a unified Pakistan, consisting of both West and East Pakistan, and was alleged to have taken part in the killings of intellectuals in 1971.
Economy of Bangladesh
By 2026, the country is expected to graduate from the United Nations’ Least Developed Country (LDC) list, according to the World Bank. Poverty has declined from 11.8 percent in 2010 to 5 percent in 2022, according to the international poverty line of $2.15 a day.
Sheikh Hasina, who first served as PM between 1996 and 2001, returned to power after the 2008 general elections. Since her return in 2009, she has gone from strength to strength, winning four successive elections, albeit under a scanner of sliding democratic norms.
Coupled with her longevity in power, the Bangladeshi economy has grown considerably. The country has grown over 6 percent year-on-year consistently since at least 2011, according to the World Bank, except for the COVID-19 year of 2020.
In 2019, the year before the pandemic, the South Asian country’s economy grew by 7.9 percent, the highest under her tenure. Robust economic growth also saw a fall in both poverty and moderate poverty in the country, according to the World Bank.
However, the economy has multiple challenges ahead with growth falling to 5.8 percent in 2023 from 7.1 percent in 2022. The country has a persistently high inflation rate, touching 9.9 percent in 2023, while its youth unemployment rate is estimated to be around 12.27 percent for the same year period, according to data published by Statista.
The high unemployment rate of the youth has played a role in the current unrest, given that public sector jobs are highly sought after in the country, according to reports.
The unrest has also seen Indian exports stranded at various land ports, as trucks are not being allowed into Bangladesh, according to reports — indicating more economic challenges for the country, going forward.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)